Early voting this past Monday was a piece of cake. I drove up to the precinct 4 Fire Station and saw a pick-up truck pulling out of a prime parking spot … right in front of the door. And, I didn’t have to fight for it. I just pulled in. A woman standing in the parking lot next door shouted, “Do you live in the Spring ISD?” Oh, crap! I’m in the Klein ISD. Maybe I’ve parked in a place reserved just for Spring ISD voters. I hollered back, “NO!” She seemed to have lost interest with that, and I shrugged and went in the front door and handed my Voter Registration I.D. to one of the women seated at the long table. I signed, and she handed me a little slip of paper with my voters’ code on it; and I went to one of several booths. Piece of cake! I knew how I wanted to vote and what all the issues were. Turning the dial was a pleasure. The whole thing took less than 15 minutes. I drove back home feeling the usual satisfaction that comes with having cast my vote.
The only things remaining are the political ads on television, and the recorded political phone messages. I did receive a phone call yesterday that wasn’t a recording. It was from a phone bank, and the young girl said,”I’m calling to ask just a couple of questions about how you voted.” Well, how in the hell did she know I’d already voted? And what gave her permission to, a.) Invade my privacy at home with a bunch of survey questions and, b.) Ask questions about how I voted at all? I told her that we are on the NO CALL list. She retorted that it was a political survey, and that the rule didn’t apply to political surveys. I told her that I still considered it an invasion of my personal space and that just by the fact that she would even ask me about how I voted is a violation of my privacy. Knowing that she had to get to a certain point in her “interview monologue”, I refused to allow her to get to that point. I told her I would NOT answer her questions, and that she needed to get another job….because I was not going to cooperate. Her only reply was, “We’ll just call back at a more convenient time.” I told her that there was not a convenient time to intrude on my privacy, and that she’d better not even consider calling back. I hung up feeling pretty smug. Actually, I used to be polite to telemarketers. That changed one night when we were just settling in for the night….in bed, and we got a survey call. The Royster and I started making up stuff to tell these intruders of privacy. Neither of us have any shame there.
The other annoyance is the political ads on T.V. My take on that is that if a candidate cannot run for office on their own merits, and keep their “promises” without mud-slinging, trashing, and out and out slander of their opponent, then they don’t have any business running for office. Politicians are politicians; salesmen/women with a smoke and mirrors agenda. The debates are a joke, and I don’t believe that our news medias are much better. They give the word journalism new meaning. Isn’t there supposed to be truth in journalism? Somehow, the politicians have reached into our media and opened the “bias” door to all of them. More’s the pity. Where is that “NONE OF THE ABOVE”, or the “WRITE IN CANDIDATE” selection?
Having cast my vote and endured all of the insulting ads and political phone invasions, I’ve had my opinionated say about all of this. I’m sure that all of these candidates and the media are crying all the way to the bank about my opinion. Hah! I’m not that powerful, but together, we as citizens are a powerful force. Look through all the political mud-slinging, smoke and mirrors and know what YOU want, and JUST VOTE!
